5 Ways to Keep eLearners Interested

We have all encountered it: painfully boring technology-based training in which your mind wanders despite a concerted effort to stay engaged and focused. But in all honesty, who can blame us? When plopped in front of a computer and asked to tackle a mountain of drab training materials, it’s a wonder there is a level of learning achieved at all. The question for businesses, medical organizations, and eLearning developers then becomes:

How to make eLearning content interesting, effective, and dare I say it, fun?

Put your concerns aside. It is possible to effectively teach highly technical topics–be it in the medical field or corporate world–without putting your audience into a training coma. How? With the multitude of possibilities made feasible by today’s breakthrough technologies, the answer is simple:

Embrace action. Research has proven individuals learn most effectively when doing. Simply introducing slide after slide of text-based content , static imagery, and training videos will only succeed in accomplishing one thing: aggravating and boring your audience. When possible, engage trainees with interactive features. From intermittent question and answer sessions to full-blown simulations, the more you ask the trainee to do, the greater their interest and application of acquired knowledge.

Keep it brief. Remember, effective training is not about content quantity, but rather, content quality. Resist the urge to impart every possible in and out of a topic and keep your focus on the core learning objectives. Yes, it is important to cover all bases, but that’s what resource libraries are for.

Vary the presentation. As with most things in life, eLearning is more interesting when it is varied. You wouldn’t want to eat the same flavor of ice cream for the remainder of your days, so why employ set training tactics. Keep the trainee engaged with a combination of media. Explain complex subjects with text and supporting imagery, illustrate scenarios with video or animation, involve and challenge the user with interactive features…the possibilities are truly limitless.

Encourage performance. Think back to your days as an elementary school student and remember the joy you felt when your teacher awarded you with a sticker for excellent performance. Though as adults, incentives have progressed beyond the realm of stickers, we still enjoy a proverbial pat on the back. Plus, a healthy dose of competition is sure to spark involvement, dedication, and participation. Testing leader boards, published score averages, early completion bonuses are all ways of injecting reward into eLearning and is a surefire way to spur progress and encourage top-notch performance.

Source competence. If you are like many businesses or medical organizations, you do not posses the capability to produce effective technology-based training in house. Sure, there are many prepackaged solutions that boast ease of use and hassle-free maintenance, but are said solutions achieving the most important goal of all: effectively engaging and teaching audiences? Capable eLearning developers can make the difference between average outcomes and exceptional ones. In your search, look for full-service providers that can handle all aspects of technology-based training content in house, from content development to animation, graphic design and video development. Also, be weary of ongoing subscription fees. If you are investing the time and energy to develop a custom eLearning solution, ensure at the end of the day, the platform remains your organization’s property. You paid for it, the end platform should rightfully be yours.

In summary, to achieve eLearning success, embrace the possibilities afforded by technology and effectively challenge, engage, and teach captive audiences. For more information on eLearning in the corporate and medical worlds, contact DDA VMS–a company capable of delivering EPIC results: 215-355-6442/ info@ddamedical.com.

About DDA

Founded in 1994, Dynamic Digital Advertising, LLC (DDA) offers comprehensive digital solutions, all built in-house. DDA has understood, since 1994, that the most effective advertising and marketing results from a holistic approach, integrating technologies, services, skills, and talents in ways unimaginable before. This approach allows DDA to create new, dynamic combinations of media, technology, programming, and design that helps corporate and medical organizations realize their goals in highly original and innovative ways.